Hackett was natural within Brooklyn, New York. He attended Public School 103 then went in to Up to date Utrecht High School. When however withwithin high school, he began appearing in cabaret, beginning using a "Borscht Belt", resorts in the Catskills. He served troika years using an anti-aircraft unit during World War II.

His number 1 job fallowing the war was at a Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. He manufactured appearances around Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and the Catskills. He acted in Broadway in Lunatics and Lovers, within which Max Liebman saw him & put him in 2 television specials. The television series, Stanley, was developed for him, which helped start Carol Burnett's career. He became known to the wider audience after he appeared in television in the 1950s and 1960s when a frequent guest on such chat show as Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, telling brash, typically off-color jokes, & mugging widely at a camera.

He became widely known from either his film role in the box-office success, ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''. He appeared when Art Carney's replacement on The Jackie Gleason Show, and in the 1958 film ''God's Little Acre. His late career was mostly as a guest in variety & prime time sitcoms.

Within 1978, Hackett surprised many once he gave the dramatic performance when Lou Costello in the TV movie Bud And Lou''. Harvey Korman played Bud Abbott in this production. A film told a story of Abbott and Costello and Hackett's portrayal was widely praised. He & Korman did the memorable rendition of the team's renowned "Who's On First" routine.

His go film performance was reprising a voice of Scuttle, the cockamamy little seagull, in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) for the direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea in 2000. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Buddy Hackett was given the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Buddy Hackett died around 2003 in Malibu, California of natural causes at a age of 78.

Filmography
Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) Fireman, Save My Child (1954) ''God's Little Acre (1958) The Shoes (1961) (short subject) All Hands on Deck (1961) Everything's Ducky (1961) The Music Man (1962) The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) Muscle Beach Party (1964) The Golden Head (1964) The Love Bug (1968) The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (Cameo) Hey Babe! (1980) Loose Shoes (1980) (Cameo) Scrooged (1988) (Cameo) The Little Mermaid (1989) (voice) Mouse Soup (1992) (short subject) (voice) Paulie'' (1998)